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F-BTSD (213) French Production

Current registration - F-BTSD

 

Manufacturer’s Serial Number - 213

 

Production Variant Number - Type 1 Variant 101

 

Maiden Flight - 26th June 1978: Toulouse, France

 

Air France delivery - 18th September 1978 (as lease)

Registration history

 

  • First Registered as F-WJAM to Aerospatiale
     

  • 14th September 1978 aircraft re-registered as F-BTSD by Aerospatiale
     

  • 18th September 1978 aircraft leased to Air France
     

  • 12th January 1979 aircraft re-registered as N94SD by Air France / Braniff Airways
     

  • 12th March 1979 aircraft re-registered as F-BTSD and returned to Aerospatiale
     

  • 9th May 1980 aircraft leased to Air France
     

  • 23rd October 1980 aircraft was purchased by Air France

 

Click above to visit this Concorde

Current Location - Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace or The Museum of Air and Space, La Bourget, Paris, France.

Aircraft history

F-BTSD holds the world records for fastest flights around the world in both directions:

1992: Oct 12th -to  Oct 13th

Westbound RTW: 12-13 October 1992: 32 hours 49 minutes 03 seconds

Lisbon-Santo Domingo-Acapulco-Honolulu-Guam-Bangkok- Bahrain-Lisbon 15-16

 

1995: August 15th to August 16th

Eastbound RTW: 15-16 August 1995: 31 hours 27 minutes 49 seconds

New York/JFK-Toulouse-Dubai-Bangkok-Guam (Andersen AFB)- Honolulu-Acapulco-New York/JFK

(The Eastbound (1995) record is the current GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS official world record)

 

1996: August

F-BTSD was painted in a Special Pespi livery when Pepsi Cola undertook a major $500 million US re-branding project.

2001: April 17th

 

Flown to Istres, France for a series of tests on newly designed Michelin tyres as part of the post Paris crash modification programme.

Pepsi Paint

In 1996, Air France briefly painted F-BTSD in a predominantly blue livery, with the exception of the wings, in a promotional deal with Pepsi. In this paint scheme, Air France were advised to remain at Mach 2 for no more than 20 minutes at a time, but there was no restriction at speeds under Mach 1.7.

F-BTSD was used because it was not scheduled for any long flights that required extended Mach 2 operations: 

 

The image directly above is copyright Carl Ford https://www.airteamimages.com

Aircraft Comments

Final Flight - June 14th 2003: AF380Y: Paris CDG- Paris Le Bourget

 

Hours Flown - 12,974 Hrs

 

Landings - 5,135

 

Supersonic Flights - 3,672

 

Current Location – Retired from service to Le Bourget Air and Space museum, Paris, France

 

F-BTSD (213) Condition

This Concorde is well looked after and in super condition. She is lovingly cared for by former Air France Concorde engineer Alexandra Jolivet, who maintains part of Sierra Delta’s hydraulics systems and electrics, this Concorde is the only Concorde in the world to still have a working nose and visor using the original systems. (British Concorde G-AXDN uses an external hydraulic power pack)

 

Recently Alex and her team have restored the flight controls to working order.

 

The preservation of this aircraft is second to none and Alex and her team spend many hours checking each system before activating them.

 

F-BTSD (213) Preservation

Both the British and French Concorde fleets were grounded and fully decommissioned during 2003, with the exception of one of the French Concordes F-BTSD, which is known as “Sierra Delta”.

 

Following the joint retirement announcement by British Airways and Air France, a group of French Concorde Engineers headed by the incredible Alex Jolivet put forward an idea of keeping “Sierra Delta” alive after its delivery to the museum at Le Bourget. Air France handed over ownership of this Concorde to the museum at Le Bourget on the 14th June 2003, unlike British Airways who have retained ownership of all their Concordes.

 

So this Concorde has been maintained since 2003 by this small team of engineers working for free, at the Air and Space Museum at Le Bourget, Paris. She’s not airworthy, far from it in fact. But once a week ground power is restored and “Sierra Delta” comes alive once again, her flight deck lights up and her nose and visor can be seen working. Lights flash on the underside of her fuselage and you could be forgiven for believing that she is about to take off for New York.

 

The video above; Lowering of the nose full cycle.

Here you can see the aircraft being powered and the nose being lowered.

The video above; Lowering of the nose full cycle.

Here you can see the aircraft being powered and the nose being lowered. 

F-BTSD & Olympus 593 Group

This aircraft for obvious reasons seems to be the number one target aircraft for Concorde return to flight (RTF) efforts and dreams throughout the aviation world. With this in mind, during May 2010 the French Concorde campaign group “Olympus 593” persuaded the former management of the museum to allow their engineer to start works on the engines of “Sierra Delta”. They stated that this was in an attempt to get the aircraft to taxi around the airfield at Le Bourget.
An engine inspection did take place and this was done with full media present, to date no official report has been published on the condition of F-BTSD's engines. Unfortunately it is the opinion of Heritage Concorde that this attempt was nothing more than a media excercise because we have seen no report on the condition of the engines and questions have been raised about the method of the inspection. 

 

The team have not been allowed to carry out any further works to this Concorde since May 2010, a decision which is supported by Alex Jolivet and her team who are currently carrying out serious works to “Sierra Delta”, to keep her alive and working. Heritage Concorde will keep you fully informed of any further developments regarding this amazing team at Le Bourget.

 

 

Pictures of F-BTSD (213)

The image directly above is copyright Carl Ford https://www.airteamimages.com

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